Depressed man allowed to buy gun and kill himself

9:31pm Thursday 22nd November 2007

A coroner is set to call for reforms to gun licensing laws after a depressed man was able to buy a rifle and kill himself.

Andrew Stevens, 36, shot himself in the head on May 1 outside his German ex-fiance's home in Lewes.

Today Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley told an inquest jury to decide whether she should refer concerns about how he was allowed to buy the weapon to higher authorities.

The inquest at Hove was told that stricter gun laws introduced in the UK after Thomas Hamilton massacred 16 children at Dunblane primary school in 1996 had failed to stop Mr Stevens arming himself.

The jury was told of a series of concerns with the way his application for a gun licence was handled by Avon and Somerset Constabulary, the local police force at his home in Bristol.

Mrs Hamilton-Deeley suggested the procedure for applying for licences was flawed.

She said: "There is no safeguard against the people who could be the most dangerous."

The inquest heard the licence was granted despite Mr Stevens, a former soldier, ticking a box on the application stating that he suffered from depression.

He had joined a rifle and pistol club on May 1 2006 and attended regularly but at that stage had no licence and could not own his own gun.

Psychotherapist Victoria Vaughan, who had been seeing Mr Stevens weekly for nine months, told the inquest that he was obsessional about Meike Schoenknecht, his former fiance who had left him in 2004 after a four year relationship.

She said he spoke angrily about Duncan Taylor, who Miss Schoenknecht had started dating in February 2007.

The court was told Avon and Somerset police asked Mr Stevens' GP for a report on his mental health in a letter strewn with mistakes.

The doctor replied asking for payment for the report, which the inquest heard was standard practice, but received no further communication from the force.

Instead Mr Stevens was granted a licence in November 2006 and bought the rifle he used to kill himself shortly after.

Roger Ash, the firearms and explosives licensing manager for Sussex Police, said his own force would not have issued a licence in the same circumstances.

He said: "Our standard practice in cases like this is for our senior medical officer to make an assessment."

He explained no-one in the UK was allowed to keep a gun unless it was for vermin control or target shooting. Anyone who wanted one for those purposes must hold a licence.

Mrs Hamilton-Deeley raised further concerns about the people who had given references to Avon and Somerset Constabulary vouching for Mr Stevens in his licence application.

Richard Omotosho, from the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said investigations had found the Avon and Somerset officers involved had not taken into account all of the information available to them.

The coroner asked Mr Ash what he felt needed to be done. He replied that it should be considered whether to make medical reports, paid for by the applicant, a mandatory requirement for every gun licence application.

Sussex Police officers who searched Mr Stevens' house after his death found gun cleaning equipment which looked as though it had been recently used and the key to his gun cabinet in the kitchen.

They found a note on the keyboard of his computer, written by Mr Stevens, which referred to an argument he had with Miss Schoenknecht three days before his death.

When Miss Vaughan was asked what she thought about it she said: "I think that this letter means he intended to take his life. He's a very intelligent, thoughtful man and this letter seems to be a distillation to me of all he had been through.

"I think it's his legacy to Meike."

In the courtroom Mr Stevens' mother and Miss Schoenknecht both broke into tears as the note was discussed.

Miss Vaughan said Mr Stevens had left a counselling session with her in a rage on the day of his death.

The court heard yesterday that he had later driven to Lewes and climbed a wall into a courtyard at Miss Schoenknecht's home in Southover High Street. When police arrived, not knowing he was armed, he picked up the rifle and pointed it first at an officer and then turned it on himself before firing a shot into his own head.

Today The Argus reported that Sussex Police had failed to act earlier in the day after Miss Schoenknecht and her then boyfriend Duncan Taylor visited police stations to say they had received aggressive phone calls and text messages.

At the inquest representatives of both the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Sussex Police's professional standards office said they were completely satisfied the force had acted correctly in response to all calls regarding the incident.

The inquest continues tomorrow.

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